Biography
2022 Latin GRAMMY® Award winning album vocalist Thaddaeus Bourne currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Florida. Praised for his rich baritone (Brooklyn Discovery), his lyrical and touching singing (Parterre Box) and his suave stage presence (Opera News), Dr. Bourne has sung over forty roles performing in the USA, Europe, and Latin America. Maintaining an exciting performance itinerary within operatic, musical theater, global jazz, and concert artist appearances, Dr. Bourne is a sought-after collaborator with numerous GRAMMY® winning artist including Sophia (Mexico's #1 children's music artist), José Valentino, and Vladimir Suarez A., among many other artists. In 2022 Dr. Bourne performed at the Voice Foundation's Awards Gala honoring American singer/songwriter Jon Bon Jovi, Russian operatic baritone Vladimir Chernov, and Brazilian news anchor William Bonner.
This season’s appearances include performances with the Bach Vocal Artists and Bach Festival Choir of Winter Park, the Blue Mountain Ballads for the Baroque on Beaver Island Music Festival, Dr. Malatesta in Opera MODO’s Don Pasquale, Traci Mendel’s Images for baritone and horn at Colorado State University, King Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Encore Musical Productions of Hartford. At the University of Florida he will perform Scott Lee’s Tiger Oil Memos with the UF New Music Ensemble and joint faculty recitals with Paul Basler, Marshall Haning, and Evan Mitchell. This spring he will sing Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen at the Center for Performing Arts. His 2021-22 performances included baritone soloist in Fauré’s Requiem and Bach’s Cantata Wahrlich, wahrlich ich sage euch (Baroque on Beaver Island Music Festival), the titular role of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (Opera in the Heights), Bass soloist in Händel's Messiah (Calvin Oratorio Society), a recital with pianist Tatiana Lokhina (Shoreline Music Society of Grand Rapids), the Multicultural Art Song Concert (손잡고 콘서트) at the National Opera Center to promote positive artistic collaboration between Korean and American artists, as well as masterclasses for Saginaw Valley State University, Marshall University, the Longy School of Music at Bard College, and the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. Other recent performances include Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus (Opera Project Columbus), Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Masterson Ensemble), and Signor Naccarelli in The Light in the Piazza (Schwob Opera at CSU). In the 2018-19 Season he performed as Figaro in The Barber of Seville (Raylynmor Opera), Soloist in the Masterson Ensemble's At Dusk concert, bass soloist in the Mozart Requiem (Baroque on Beaver Island Music Festival), Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance and Beethoven's Choral Fantasy (Hendricks Symphony), Trouble in Tahiti (Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra), and Dandini in La Cenerentola (Opera MODO).
His previous faculty appointments include Troy University, Butler University, Earlham College, and the University of Connecticut. An accomplished flutist, Dr. Bourne completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in flute performance, embarking on his DMA in voice after training as a singer to improve his breath support. Dr. Bourne completed graduate degrees in voice at the University of Connecticut with Dr. Constance Rock and Indiana University with Peter Volpe. His research areas include voice classification, bel canto singing beyond the western classical tradition, and expanding the traditional lens of opera for greater access, equity, and participation. He has presented on these topics at regional and national conferences for the National Opera Association, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the Voice Foundation's Anniversary Symposium. He recently joined José Valentino and Silviu Ciulei in a presentation on the intersections between the bel canto vocal technique and music of the Latin and African diasporas for the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship’s (CAME) 2022 conference. Their research will be included as a chapter in the forthcoming CAME book published through Library Press of the University of Florida. In the summer of 2021 he joined the teaching artists of Broadway for Arts Education in their collaboration with the Shanti-Bhavan Children’s Project bringing music education to underprivileged children in India's Tamil-Nadu region.